Florida-bred colt earns third stakes win after stretch duel
Bim Bam might be the only horse with almost $300,000 in earnings and three stakes victories who has never been favored by the betting public, but if he continues to run with the heart he displayed Sunday, racing fans surely will start paying him more respect.
Bim Bam prevailed by a nose in the $125,000 Hallandale Beach Stakes at Gulfstream Park after dueling with 4-5 favorite Interactif for the length of the stretch. Bim Bam had led the whole way in the 1 1⁄16-mile turf race before Interactif stuck his head in front at the sixteenth pole. Bim Bam refused to fold in the final yards, however, rallying to edge his rival at the wire.
With usual rider Eibar Coa aboard, Bim Bam found himself leading the way early in the Hallandale Beach for the first time in his nine-race career. The son of Deputy Wild Cat set modest fractions of 24.60 seconds for a quarter-mile and 49.91 seconds for a half-mile, with Interactif half a length behind in second place.
Bim Bam led by a head at the top of the stretch, with Interactif and jockey Kent Desormeaux on their outside, seemingly ready to surge past him. But in the end it was Bim Bam who stopped the clock in 1:42.07 for his fourth career win.
“My plan was to sit right behind the speed, but when they let me go, I was able to make the lead and then go that slow,” Coa said. “And I know my horse is a fighter, and he doesn’t like to let horses go by. I knew if they challenged him, he was going to fight back. When the other horse went by, I knew my horse was going to try, so I kept riding and digging because I knew he could come back, and he did.”
Coa had confidence in Bim Bam because the horse has never run a bad race, having finished in the money in all nine of his starts. Bim Bam made his first six starts on dirt at Calder Race Course last year, winning the $75,000 Foolish Pleasure Stakes and finishing third behind highly regarded Florida-bred Jackson Bend in all three legs of the Florida Stallion Stakes.
Trainer David Brownlee then tried Bim Bam on turf, and the horse has responded with three strong efforts. The colt won the $100,000 Arthur Appleton Juvenile Turf at Calder in November and finished second to Nordic Truce in the $100,000 Dania Beach Stakes at Gulfstream Park in January. Just like the Hallandale Beach, the Dania Beach featured a thrilling stretch battle, as Bim Bam lost a lead late and finished a neck behind the winner.
“We know he’ll fight back, like he did the last time,” Brownlee said after Sunday’s win.
Bim Bam returned mutuels of $10.60, $3.60 and $3 as the third choice in a field of eight 3-year-olds in the Hallandale Beach. Interactif paid $2.40 and $2.40 after finishing two lengths ahead of Florida-bred Asphalt, who returned $3.20 to show.
Interactif was favored based on his Grade 3 victories going 1 1⁄16 miles on turf in the With Anticipation Stakes at Saratoga in September and the Bourbon Stakes at Keeneland in October, as well as his third-place finish behind Pounced in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G2) at Santa Anita in November. Desormeaux said he was surprised his horse was second best Sunday.
“Was it the trip I wanted? Yes, it went very well,” he said. “But I’m shocked. I didn’t think I could get beat from the quarter-pole.”
Bim Bam is a homebred for Jim DiMare, who races under the J D Farms name and owns Rising Hill Farm in Reddick along with this wife, Sheila. The $75,000 winner’s check for the Hallandale Beach boosted his earnings to $296,295.
Brownlee said Bim Bam will stick with turf and be pointed toward the $150,000 Palm Beach Stakes (G3), a nine-furlong race for sophomores at Gulfstream on March 6. It will be the longest race of the colt’s career and his graded stakes debut.
Asphalt is a son of War Chant bred by Peter Vegso’s Ocala-based Vegso Racing Stable. The horse is owned by Joseph Riccelli and was a $100,000 purchase at the Keeneland sale of yearlings in September 2008. Asphalt entered Sunday’s race off a victory in a $37,000 allowance last month on the Gulfstream turf course. He’s won two of his six starts for $71,047.
–E-mail Nick Fortuna at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
– Photo of Florida-bred Bim Bam by Adam Coglianese
